1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for manufacturing candy bars containing baked wafers to which a cream ingredient is applied and in which a stack of creamed wafers is covered by a coating which is protected from cracking or delamination by controlling the moisture contents of the baked wafer and the cream whereby moisture transfer from the cream to the wafer is minimized so that the wafer does not exert delaminating stresses on the exterior coating by expansion of the wafers due to moisture addition thereto. The invention also relates to the product produced by the process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The process of manufacturing candy bars made up of creamed wafers which are then covered by a final coating, such as chocolate, is complicated because of changes which may occur in the structure of the wafers after the wafers have been covered. In the prior art various attempts have been made to avoid cracking or delamination of the final coating by producing stacks of wafers coated with a suitable cream when the wafers have a relatively low moisture content as they come from the ovens in which they are manufactured. One such process involves the provision of a relatively large, controlled atmosphere room in which the wafer stacks are stored for relatively long periods of time, such as several days, during which the stacks of creamed wafers are moved through the room, commonly referred to as a maturing room. At the end of this period of time the matured stacks are moved out of the maturing room and are fed to a coating machine which covers the matured wafer stacks with a coating which frequently consists of a chocolate mixture. The exact mechanism of such maturing is not precisely known. The time required in the maturing room presents a very real disadvantage since large numbers of such wafer stacks must be held in such maturing rooms for long periods of time, and it is not always easy to determine exactly how long this period of time should be.
One of the ways proposed in the past to avoid these difficulties was to provide a maturing tunnel for the wafers which were then coated with a cream, cut to the appropriate candy bar sizes and then enrobed. However, the prior attempts involving the use of such maturing tunnels were not successful due to the fact that the final candy bar product, after being coated or enrobed, would ultimately undergo cracking and delamination of the final coating if the resulting candy bars were stored for any significant length of time. Significantly, the shorter time provided by the use of such maturing tunnels was more than offset by the shortened shelf life of the final product. The process of the present invention makes possible the elimination of the long holding times involved in the use of the prior art maturing rooms and at the same time avoids the cracking and delamination involved in the use of the maturing tunnels of the prior art.